Charlie Wolf

Stephen Linskey^[1] (born 12 April 1959) better known as Charlie Wolf, is a British based American radio talk-show host, disc jockey and political commentator, and formerly the Communications Director of Republicans Abroad UK. Wolf previously presented a late-night phone-in show he hosted on the radio station Talksport.

He was a featured writer and blogger for the Mail Online's "Right Minds" page,^[2] formerly edited by Simon Heffer.

Early life

Wolf is originally from Boston where he studied journalism.

Broadcasting career

Wolf moved to the UK in 1984 to DJ for the pirate radio station Laser 558, broadcasting from MV Communicator, based in international waters. In the early 1990s he was a DJ on Atlantic 252 and also presented the network evening show on the three GWR FM stations in the west of England. In 2002 Wolf moved to Cork in Ireland to host RedFM's Cork Talks Back show and subsequently presented RedFM's breakfast show until his departure in June 2004. For a short period Wolf broadcast on both Red FM and talkSPORT, and flew from Cork to London and back on Ryanair. On a number of occasions, he presented his talkSPORT show remotely from a studio at RedFM. He was also a stand-in presenter on the Frinton-on-Sea based radio station Big L 1395.

Since leaving TalkSport radio Wolf worked mainly as a radio and television pundit and commentator, mainly debating or speaking on American politics and news stories. On 12 October 2007, he appeared on David Frost's Al Jazeera English programme Frost Over The World, debating capital punishment with Bianca Jagger.^[3]

He has also appeared on The Real Deal with George Galloway on the Iranian government-funded news channel Press TV.^[4]

Wolf made a memorable appearance on BBC Radio Four's Today programme in December 2010, where he joked "with apologies to Clausewitz, politics is sport pursued by other means."

Since 2010, he has appeared every Sunday night (occasionally they have been switched to Friday night) on BBC Radio 5 Live's Nolan show, with Stephen Nolan and Stephen Lowe (Bishop of Hulme).

He is a regular guest on the News panel on LBC with former talkSPORT presenter Ian Collins.

Writing

Whilst in Cork he also wrote a weekly column in the local Evening Echo newspaper for a time. Wolf continues to air his views in a weekly column in London-based community newspaper.^[5]

Wolf continues to support capital punishment, arguing in the case of Troy Davis that because his execution was "pretty peaceful," therefore "putting down the family dog would have been a lot worse."^[6]

Controversies

During his talkSPORT show on 4 December 2005, Wolf described Rachel Corrie, an American activist who had been killed by an Israeli military bulldozer, as "scum." Wolf claimed later in the broadcast that he was sorry for Corrie's death, "even if by her own stupidity" but his comments were in relation to her burning a facsimile of an American flag while in Gaza. In its bulletin dated 23 January 2006, Ofcom ruled this comment to be in breach of the "Generally Accepted Standards" section of the Broadcasting Code and stated it was "seriously ill-judged".^[7]

Personal life

Wolf married London-based journalist and art critic Estelle Lovatt in August 2004. They have a son Freddie, born on 16 June 2005.

In June 2007, Wolf announced that he has kidney cancer,^[8][9] the same disease that afflicted his former talkSPORT colleague James Whale.

References

External links

• Charlie Wolf Official Site
• The Charlie Wolf Blog
• Archived shows CharlieWolf.com (unofficial)
• Republicans Abroad UK